1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer including a maintenance mechanism for keeping a good ejection condition of the ink-jet head, and more specifically relates to an ink-jet printer including a maintenance mechanism using strip-like cleaning paper for receiving ejected ink from the head and/or wiping the nozzle surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional ink-jet printers have an ink-jet head for ejecting ink, a carriage for moving the head along a recording medium in order to eject ink at a desired position of the recording medium, and a maintenance mechanism for keeping a good ejection condition of the ink-jet head.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,505 corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-141,439 discloses a maintenance mechanism in which cleaning of an ink-jet head is performed by pressing the head against paper on a platen and frictionally sliding the head relative to the paper.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-323,999 discloses a maintenance unit for an ink-jet printer using hot-melt type ink. This maintenance unit has an ink wiping mechanism wherein a strip of maintenance paper spooled out from a supply spool is put in contact with the head to thereby wipe ink.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-141,898 (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/751,768) discloses a cleaning device which, in order to remove dust and air remaining in the a nozzle of the ink-jet head, forces ink to eject out from the nozzle to thereby collect the dust etc., on cleaning paper disposed marginally spaced away from the nozzle. The ink-jet printer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-141,898, comprises a pump which may apply either a positive back pressure or negative pressure to the ink-jet head, a conveyer having a strip of cleaning paper and conveying it to the head and a pushing means for pushing the cleaning paper against the head. However, an ink-jet printer of this type, was provided with a dedicated motor or solenoid as the driving source for the means of pushing the cleaning paper. Further, separate driving sources were used to drive the pump and the conveying means for the cleaning paper. In short, driving of the maintenance mechanism needed a multiple number of driving sources, resulting in a complicated configuration. Moreover, an ink-jet printer needs driving sources such as one as a feed motor for feeding print sheets and one for the carriage. Thus, an ink-jet printer needs a number of driving sources, resulting in a complex configuration and producing difficulties in reduction of the manufacturing cost.